The Map on Cyprus's Flag Isn't Exactly Accurate

Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and it’s one of only two countries in the world that displays its own map on its national flag. But the outline on the Cypriot flag doesn’t reflect the actual territory controlled by the government. You might recall that the island has been divided since the Turkish invasion of 1974, with the northern third considering itself the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.” But what you probably don’t know is that there’s an additional three percent of the island that doesn’t belong to either side. Instead, oddly enough, it’s British soil.

Britain only granted independence to most of Cyprus.

In 1878, the Ottoman Empire handed Cyprus over to the British in exchange for a military pact against Russia. And when the United Kingdom granted Cyprus independence in 1960, it didn’t want to lose its strategic military position near the Suez Canal. So Her Majesty’s government insisted on retaining sovereignty over two small areas on Cyprus’s southern coast: the territories of Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

The British base without a flag or sterling of its own.

Today Akrotiri and Dhekelia are home to two Royal Air Force and one British Army garrison, but the British territories aren’t barbed-wire-fenced compounds like Gibraltar or Guantanamo Bay. Outside the bases, 7,000 native Cypriots live and farm on British soil, and in fact, more than half the territory is locally owned land. The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia are the only British Overseas Territory not to have their own flag, and they’re the only British territory where the euro, not the pound, is officially legal tender.

Palace prince protests a peck of pickled pipits.

Today one of the biggest diplomatic spats over Akrotiri and Dhekelia involves songbirds, of all things. In the face of Cyprus’s 2013 economic crash, local farmers have been making a living by trapping songbirds on glue-covered perches near the base—almost a million finches and warblers a year in Dhekelia alone. The birds are grilled or pickled and then swallowed whole in a local delicacy called ambelopoulia. But British birders are aghast at how many of their birds are now failing to return from their winter migration to the Mediterranean. Even Buckingham Palace has weighed in, with Prince Charles personally asking military police to crack down on illegal trappers.

The British would trade land for peace.

Britain’s territorial right to Akrotiri and Dhekelia are open-ended, and the crown is loath to give up the center for some of its most valuable intelligence gathering on the Middle East. But in June, the U.K. confirmed that it would be willing to cede almost half its territory in Cyprus—47 square miles—if it would help negotiate peace between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and re-unify the country after a four-decade standoff. If peace ever breaks out in Cyprus, the British stand to lose more land than anyone else.

Explore the world's oddities every week with Ken Jennings, and check out his book Maphead for more geography trivia.